Brand attributes play an important role in tracking customer-based brand equity. Therefore researchers need an effective approach for eliciting attributes. View Summary

Brand attributes play an important role in tracking customer-based brand equity. Therefore researchers need an effective approach for eliciting attributes. This paper has two aims: to determine which of four different techniques elicit(s) better results; and to test if online data collection is a viable alternative to face-to-face collection. The techniques compared are: Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), Free Elicitation (FE), Repertory Grid (RG) and Projective Elicitation (PE). These approaches are compared on the number and variety of attributes generated, as well as respondent evaluation. FE is the best-performing technique in a face-to-face context, generating the most attributes, evaluated positively by respondents and providing a typical distribution of attribute types. We also provide evidence that online is a viable data collection method for attribute elicitation studies, except ZMET due to respondent drop-out. Online we recommend a combination of FE and PE to obtain a range and variety of responses.

3

Brand equity and store brand tiers: An analysis based on an experimental design

The creation of strong brands interests manufacturers and distributors, as well as researchers. However, previous investigations of brand equity have focused almost exclusively on manufacturers’ brands, without considering the brand equity of store brands. View Summary

The creation of strong brands interests manufacturers and distributors, as well as researchers. However, previous investigations of brand equity have focused almost exclusively on manufacturers’ brands, without considering the brand equity of store brands. A few exceptions analyse store brands from an aggregate perspective, without differentiating their types. The present study instead considers the effect of store brand tiers (e.g. generics, standard, premium) on brand equity. An experimental design compares scores for different store and manufacturer brands across branded and unbranded tests. Store brands, including premium ones, suffer a brand equity disadvantage compared with manufacturers’ brands. Generic store brands are at a clear disadvantage; premium store brands do not differ from standard store brands in terms of brand equity.

4

Multidimensional structures of brand and country images, and their effects on product evaluation

Marketers are interested in how consumers perceive product cues in order to build an appropriate marketing mix. View Summary

Marketers are interested in how consumers perceive product cues in order to build an appropriate marketing mix. Country and brand images are some of the cues proven to be of significant impact on consumer behaviour. This paper studies country and brand image multi-dimensional structures across several brands, countries and products. A model relating country image to brand image and then to product evaluation was built with country and brand image as multi-dimensional concepts. A within-subject intercultural investigation serves as a basis for data collection (1,400 consumers). The investigation was done in Japan, France and Tunisia. Three products were investigated, with three brands for each product: computer (Dell, Sony and Acer); hand cream (Shiseido, Nivea and L’Oréal); and sports shoes (Nike, Asics and le coq sportif). Results show a conjoint effect of country and brand images on product evaluation in addition to their separate effects. Country image structures differ across countries and influence differently product evaluation. Similarly, brand image structures differ across brands, across countries and across products.

5

Brand Britain's identity crisis

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Deborah Mattinson, Market Leader, Quarter 1, 2015, pp. 20-20

This article examines the current state of British identity, including results from the Social Attitudes Survey, following the referendum on Scottish independence. View Summary

This article examines the current state of British identity, including results from the Social Attitudes Survey, following the referendum on Scottish independence.

People's sense of Britishness and togetherness peaked around the London Olympics in 2012, with sources of national pride including Shakespeare, the NHS and the royal family.

What it means to be 'truly British' was explored in 2013 too, finding that speaking English had become 10% more important than in 1995, and being Christian had declined in importance.

There are also indicators that English people feel more British than Scottish or Welsh people do, and that English people do not want Scottish MPs to vote on English issues.

6

The power of brand properties

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David Taylor, Market Leader, Quarter 1, 2015, pp. 49-51

This article discusses the the importance of brand familiarity, and argues that any changes to branding should be carefully considered and gradually implemented to ensure valuable brand associations in the memories of consumers are not lost in the change. View Summary

This article discusses the the importance of brand familiarity, and argues that any changes to branding should be carefully considered and gradually implemented to ensure valuable brand associations in the memories of consumers are not lost in the change.

Brand properties - the logos, colours and designs of familiar brands - act as welcome signposts through the chaos of the modern shopping experience, and changing these precious assets can be very risky.

Most companies lack a proper system for measuring their brand properties against their competitors', meaning that changes are made on judgement, often triggered by a change in marketing director.

Familiar brand signposts are crucial because for 90% of the time our brains work on 'autopilot', which uses 'memory structure' to trigger brand meaning.

7

Eliminating order effects in association tasks without using randomisation

It has often been observed that changing an item’s position in a list can substantially affect the probability that it is chosen. View Summary

It has often been observed that changing an item’s position in a list can substantially affect the probability that it is chosen. This paper assesses the magnitude of these so-called order effects in brand-attribute association tasks, and examines the confounding roles played by brand usage and question framing. While our main order effect is roughly the same as that observed for similar response formats, we find substantially larger order effects among users of a brand than non-users; and question frames that first ask respondents to create an attribute shortlist before making associations on this reduced set eliminate or greatly reduce the magnitude of the order effect and its interaction with brand usage. These simple modifications to question framings may be useful where randomisation is not feasible.

8

Fujitsu says B2B marketing doesn't have to be boring

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Lena Roland, Event Reports, Festival of Marketing, November 2014

This event report explains how Fujitsu, the technology company, is using a range of measures to build its brand reputation and increase sales in a challenging UK B2B market. View Summary

This event report explains how Fujitsu, the technology company, is using a range of measures to build its brand reputation and increase sales in a challenging UK B2B market.

As brand loyalty erodes, Fujitsu is working to differentiate, establish credibility and increase consideration amongst senior IT decision makers.

Brand building initiatives include the launch of an e-magazine for clients and a programme which places the voice of the consumer at the centre of decisions.

The fundamentals of marketing remain the same - insights, targeting, proposition, creative and call to action - but these are now being applied to digital.

9

How to create a culture of risk taking: The biggest mistake may be the one you don't make

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Anne Field, ANA Magazine, Fall 2014, pp. 26-31

This article highlights the benefits of taking risks and making mistakes, and how to create a culture that fosters risk taking in order to be innovative. View Summary

This article highlights the benefits of taking risks and making mistakes, and how to create a culture that fosters risk taking in order to be innovative.

To demonstrate a commitment to the belief that mistakes are an essential part of innovation, incorporate risk taking and making smart mistakes into reward systems and individual employees' goals.

When hiring risk takers, identify the appropriate traits beforehand, use behaviour-based interviewing, watch for 'learning agility' and recruit from industries known for risk taking.

Trying out things on social media is relatively inexpensive but must be treated with care, as there can be disastrous consequences.

To reduce the chances of social media problems, team members can be taught the various types of mistakes social media marketers tend to make, including brand specific, reputational, and user error.

This paper examines the 'change-constancy conflict', whereby loyal customers want brands to both change and stay the same, and suggests that brands belong to either 'anchor' or 'change' categories, with different amounts of change tolerated or demanded. View Summary

This paper examines the 'change-constancy conflict', whereby loyal customers want brands to both change and stay the same, and suggests that brands belong to either 'anchor' or 'change' categories, with different amounts of change tolerated or demanded.

Loyal customers are sensitive to change, wanting their brands to stay the same - but at the same time they want them to evolve and modernise.

Desire for change is driven by different things, including evolving culture, needs and life stage change, whilst constancy makes things simple, comfortable and reduces risks for consumers.

Attitudes towards change often vary by category, and individual consumers are able to satisfy internal conflict between constancy and change by using a variety of products.

Anchor brands can change in small degrees, and are characterised by allowing personalisation, being associated with rituals and having an established user base.

Categories where consumers want more change include technology based and socially significant brands which have a strong consumer following.

This event report shows how Target, the retailer, bounced back from a high-profile data breach to transform its brand strategy and messaging, and thus restore its reputation with consumers. View Summary

This event report shows how Target, the retailer, bounced back from a high-profile data breach to transform its brand strategy and messaging, and thus restore its reputation with consumers.

Following the data breach, Target made headlines around the world, with the crisis generating 150 billion impressions and damaging perceptions of its brand.

Alongside installing heightened data security measures, the company re-examined its internal culture and working practices, and found it was lagging behind in several key areas.

To refresh its approach, the firm made efforts to engage a far wider audience, and introduced a broad range of online and mobile initiatives to serve a digitally-savvy client base.

Hiring external talent also made the firm less insular, and further encouraged the adoption of a fresh perspective.

12

Measuring the Strength of Color Brand-Name Links: The Comparative Efficacy of Measurement Approaches

This study provides a theoretically and empirically validated approach to measuring the strength of color as a brand-identity element. View Summary

This study provides a theoretically and empirically validated approach to measuring the strength of color as a brand-identity element. The authors conducted a split sample test with 880 consumers across three categories: banking, chocolate, and hair care. Comparing four measurement approaches helped determine the effect of cuing with the brand versus color (cue direction) and prompting with response sets versus not prompting (difficulty of response). The key comparison measures were the number of people who linked the brand with color (fame) and the relative presence of competitor links (uniqueness). The color-cued, unprompted brand response measure is the recommended approach.

This research explored whether advertisements can insult consumers by underestimating their intelligence. View Summary

This research explored whether advertisements can insult consumers by underestimating their intelligence. It also posed the question whether advertising that underestimates consumers' intelligence signals that the advertiser has a prejudiced view of its consumers - a perception that, then, impacts negatively on consumer perceptions of the brand. Two experimental studies found that consumers, indeed, may find advertising insulting to their intelligence and, consequently, rate such advertising lower. Inferring that the advertiser does not think very highly of their intelligence, consumers expected the offered products to be of lower quality and rated the advertiser lower. The tests extended across three different product categories and ruled out competing explanations.

The goal of this study is to understand the influence of event sponsorship on children and their ability to fully understand its persuasive intent. View Summary

The goal of this study is to understand the influence of event sponsorship on children and their ability to fully understand its persuasive intent. A wide range of research addresses the effects of sponsorship on adults, but not much looks at children. We study the effects of sponsorship on a new target: children between the ages of 7 and 11. We analyse effects on the sponsor’s brand image and on purchase intentions, and study the moderator effects of product involvement and brand familiarity. A structured questionnaire was completed by a sample of 334 children in the defined age range. Findings suggest that sponsorship can influence children’s image of the advertised brand and their purchasing intentions, especially in the case of non-familiar brands. Additionally, our research suggests that sponsorship can affect the purchasing intention for low-involvement products, while brand image is more affected in the case of high-involvement products, contrary to our expectations. Moreover, results show that the majority of children do not recognize sponsorship’s persuasive intent, and therefore our research has important managerial implications, highlighting the caution that should be used in the case of sponsoring activities with children.

This article examines what consumers in UK, USA and China think about the honesty, transparency and ethics of brands. View Summary

This article examines what consumers in UK, USA and China think about the honesty, transparency and ethics of brands.

Transparency stands alongside quality and price in the decision-making process for consumers.

While mistrust in companies' transparency remains, retailers such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis are ranked highly in the UK; technology giant Microsoft is seen as honest in the US; and consumer electronic brands such as Haier and Lenovo are judged to be transparent in China.

Consumers don't just stop buying a product or service that doesn't reflect their personal values but also encourage others to do the same; issues affecting food quality and safety make consumers the most angry.

Leaders of companies can no longer claim ignorance of wrongdoing and must take responsibility.

This paper presents a methodological framework for using opinion mining to analyse comments on social networking sites. View Summary

This paper presents a methodological framework for using opinion mining to analyse comments on social networking sites. A series of procedural recommendations is described and compared with the content analysis method. The major steps include brand selection, determination of a classification scheme and categories, human coding, programming of the automated classification algorithm, and evaluation of the classification results. We then present the results of a pretest that examined the content of Tweets about IKEA. After human coding of 100 Tweets, the automated classification was carried out. The Precision measure achieved more than 65% for the first classification (Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Exclude) and 64% for the second classification (Sharing, Information, Opinion, Question, Reply and Exclude), demonstrating the efficiency of mining Tweets for emotional patterns. Combining the two classification schemes, the pretest performs a social network analysis to identify interrelationships among the Tweets. In closing, methodological implications and utility for marketing research are discussed.

This event report discusses how Dell, from an inauspicious start in 2005 with the online furor and negative word of mouth surrounding "Dell hell", has made social media a core aspect of its operations. View Summary

This event report discusses how Dell, from an inauspicious start in 2005 with the online furor and negative word of mouth surrounding "Dell hell", has made social media a core aspect of its operations.

From 2006 onwards, the firm has taken an extremely active approach to responding to the comments and problems of consumers online.

A Social Media and Communities University, first set up in 2010, now provides on-going education to staff members to help them listen, engage and become true experts in this space.

An in-house Social Media Listening Command Center supports the company's activity, and strategy, in the digital arena through providing a global, multi-lingual means to monitor consumer feedback.

Dell's integrated approach means that social media insights are informing other aspects of its marketing activity, and vice versa.

19

Join the band?: More than ever, marketers are letting the music do the talking

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Robin Schatz, ANA Magazine, Spring, 2014

This article explores the growth in the number of brands collaborating with musicians in order to change consumer perceptions and deliver tangible business results. View Summary

This article explores the growth in the number of brands collaborating with musicians in order to change consumer perceptions and deliver tangible business results.

Growth in this area reflects two growing marketing trends - brands as content providers and brands resonating with consumers through storytelling.

Examples of companies exploring this area include Red Bull, which started a record label, Coca-Cola, which has invested in Spotify and works with unsigned artists, Burberry, which has a website highlighting emerging artists, and AT&T, which collaborates with artists.

The artists' message and underlying story are both key to ensuring a music partnership resonates with the brand's target audience.

20

How to avoid social media meltdowns

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Rob Gray, Market Leader, Quarter 3, 2014

This article highlights some corporate social media blunders and offers advice for brands to avoid embarrassment, including a crisis management protocol. View Summary

This article highlights some corporate social media blunders and offers advice for brands to avoid embarrassment, including a crisis management protocol.

Given the unpredictability of social media, it's crucial to know to avoid common pitfalls and adopt a proactive and polite policy when faced with a social media crisis.

It is important to put in place social media crisis management procedures that define what constitutes an issue and set out the escalation process if a crisis occurs.

Examples of risky social media strategies are given, including from Waitrose, the UK supermarket chain, and Coles, the Australian supermarket chain.

21

Opening your mind: A reappraisal of the open-ended question

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Alexander Wheatley, ESOMAR, Digital Dimensions, June 2014

This paper assesses the value of open-ended questions in survey design, in light of new text analysis capabilities, and finds that this can provide more nuanced and differentiated data than close-ended questions. View Summary

This paper assesses the value of open-ended questions in survey design, in light of new text analysis capabilities, and finds that this can provide more nuanced and differentiated data than close-ended questions.

Open-ended questions can be more engaging and generate greater nuance, differentiation and honesty than close-ended questions.

A word lexicon to quantitatively analyse open-ended responses was automated using spreadsheet macros, creating a time efficient process.

This was effective across multiple studies at ranking sentiment and providing greater differentiation than close-ended questions.

Data was more nuanced, with a single open-ended question gathering more detailed data than up to 30 close-ended questions.

22

When Do Advertising Parodies Hurt? The Power of Humor and Credibility in Viral Spoof Advertisements

How harmful is a parody for the target brand? To address this question, the current study focused on negative advertising parodies created by amateurs and spread through social media. View Summary

How harmful is a parody for the target brand? To address this question, the current study focused on negative advertising parodies created by amateurs and spread through social media. It examined the types of consumers for whom - and contexts in which - negative advertising parodies would adversely affect attention, attitudes, purchase intentions, and intentions to pass along an advertisement. The authors found that advertising parody is detrimental for the parodied brand if the parody is strongly credible and contains humor. Highly committed consumers are not isolated from this detrimental effect. These findings have implications for both research and practice.

23

How anime reignited consumer passion for Internet Explorer in Asia

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Low Lai Chow, Event Reports, The Internet Show, April 2014

This event report discusses how Microsoft, the computing company, used anime to help restore the fortunes of Internet Explorer (IE), its web browser, among young consumers across Asia. View Summary

This event report discusses how Microsoft, the computing company, used anime to help restore the fortunes of Internet Explorer (IE), its web browser, among young consumers across Asia. Perceptions and usage of IE were not wholly favourable before the campaign began. By creating an anime character to represent IE, the company was able to authentically engage anime fans who are passionate and digitally-connected. Alongside securing strong sharing and engagement scores, this content has enabled Microsoft to connect with new users and reconnect with lapsed ones.

24

Point of View: The power of branding

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Byron Sharp, Admap, June 2014, pp. 13-13

This article discusses the importance and unimportance of logos in branding. Designers and marketers often attach meaning to logos that consumers do not: consumers rarely consider what the deeper connotations of a logo are or attach any intrinsic meaning to it. View Summary

This article discusses the importance and unimportance of logos in branding. Designers and marketers often attach meaning to logos that consumers do not: consumers rarely consider what the deeper connotations of a logo are or attach any intrinsic meaning to it. Instead, the primary purpose of a logo is as an identifier to ensure the consumer knows which brand's advertising or product they are seeing: the logo forms part of the branding which makes the brand recognisable.

This paper deals with the extended audience of advertising. More specifically, it examines how consumer advertising influences the attractiveness of a corporate brand as a potential employer. View Summary

This paper deals with the extended audience of advertising. More specifically, it examines how consumer advertising influences the attractiveness of a corporate brand as a potential employer. The results from two experimental studies show that creative advertising signals brand ability, and enhances perceptions of development (Study 1 and 2) and reputation value (Study 2) offered by the brand to employees. Mediation analysis shows that this, in turn, has a positive impact on the overall attractiveness of the brand as an employer. The findings contribute to the growing literature on different stakeholder reactions to consumer advertising and offer a broader picture of how advertising contributes to firm performance, beyond influencing consumers.